AAP - Section on Bioethics

Registration for the October meeting in Washington, DC is now open. You will find a full schedule including information on our joint meeting with adolescent health at http://www.aapexperience.org/. I hope many of you will make plans to join us there to meet our 2009 Bartholome award winner. We are now accepting nominations for the 2010 winner.

The meetings sponsored or cosponsored by our section this year include the Saturday sessions “Direct to Consumer Testing and the Busy Pediatrician” at 7:00 am and: “Institutional Review Boards: Protecting Human Subjects or Protecting Research Institutions” at 4:00 pm. The meetings on Sunday include: “You are Hereby Commanded to Appear: Court Preparation for the Pediatrician” and “What All Medical Professionals Must Know about the Judicial Process” at 8:30 am and “Ethical Issues in Adolescent Medicine” at 1pm.“Medical Neglect: Benign, Sacred, or Abuse?” is on Monday at 2:00 pm. At the Upcoming Events link you will find a listing of other sessions of possible interest to you. The rest of the meeting page has been updated as well. I have no more information on the October 15-18 ASBH program but when I have the full program I will let you know.

As a Section, we work to encourage ethics education. Texas Medical Association maintains a list of online and home studies in ethics for physicians. The British Medical Journal has a program called BMJ Learning with modules on cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Both the Journal of the American Medical Association and New England Journal of Medicine have cme articles. Of course, don’t forget AAP’s Pedialink which has a hot topic course on “Medical Liability and the Pediatrician.” Many of these links may also be reached thru our Web site page Continuing Medical Education. Don’t forget our section’s Pediatrics in Review articles on AAP Committee on Bioethics authored policies. The references are: Pediatrics in Review 2008;29:e1-e8,. Pediatrics in Review 2008;29:315-e22 and Pediatrics in Review. 2008;29:e28-e34.

Current Articles, News Archive, “On History, Literature, Media and the Arts in Medicine”, Continuing Medical Education, AAP Grand Rounds Publications from the Section on Bioethics have all been updated. The AAP Policy page has been updated to include recently reaffirmed policies. If you don’t find a specific policy there, check the AAP Policy Finder site. If you need something already removed I may be able to retrieve it, just let me know what you need.

Interesting things are continually appearing on internet. WikiDoc is an online medical encyclopedia. They are looking for volunteers to help “create and manage content.” Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any dedicated ethics material. EthicShare is a research and collaboration Web site for scholars and has interest groups. Nature has a streaming video archive. You will need a flash browser plugin but there is a link for one on the page. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has a page on public access to archived publications under the new rules. This Web site posts a running list of a variety of data breeches, not just medical.

Many hospitals and groups now Twitter or have groups on Facebook. Children’s Medical Center in Dallas twittered a kidney transplant. Among others, I follow SwineFluNews, American Medical Association, Bioethics Blog, Texas Medical Association, and other bioethics sites. Facebook has groups for AJOB and Journal of Medical Ethics.

Some of our members are on Twitter or on Facebook. One of our members, Wolffe Nadoolman, blogs. If you are interested in having a Facebook group for our members, let me know. I must admit I have never set up a group but it shouldn’t be too hard if we are interested.

These projects are intended to be useful or at least interesting to Section members. I would appreciate your feedback on the new as well as old pages and suggestions for additions. I am always glad to receive your emails whatever the subject. Any information and references you send me I try to include in the next update. Of course, any member may use the LISTSERV® e-mail list at Bioethics@listserv.aap.org. If you are not receiving at least occasional messages from me let me know at bjmears@arboroaks.com.

My thanks to Alison Baker, MS and Heather Stob from AAP, the AAP Grand Rounds staff and the members of the Section Executive Committee who all provide assistance on the ongoing projects of our Section.